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This January Otari Davidovich Chanturiya, the de factofounding father of our publishing business (the Russian magazine Coffee&Tea in Russia and the international magazine

Coffee&Tea International) who had been managing the USSR tea industry for years, would have celebrated his 80th birthday. For obvious reasons I can hardly be impartial speaking of him, but the fact remains that with his departure (summer 2006) ended the era of people who had shaped and developed tea business in the USSR, who had worked all their lives devotedly and put their heart in promoting tea, and who had advanced new achievements in science and industry. He remained committed to his tea creed – quality over money – throughout his life. He was ready to sacrifice what seemed essential to uphold his fundamental professional principle. We never discussed why he was so adamant

in protecting tea quality (even during the years of Sovietera shortages, when this principle obviously and directly contradicted the Party and government goals of increasing production volume, and such obstinacy could easily cost him his job). I often think of it

now. Recently, as I was going through my father's notes, documents and fragments of his unfinished book, I involuntarily lingered over the topic of his Ph.D. thesis which was a study of substances contributing to the tea aroma. In the very beginning of his tea career he took up the problem which neither his predecessors nor successors could solve. Despite the progress of modern science and technology, tea aroma is still elusive

like the Blue Bird: it keeps escaping its chasers and gives tea its uniqueness, beauty, perfection and immortality. Tea aroma is the key quality characteristic which the man has not so far captured. It is hard to describe or reproduce artificially, but so easy to spoil!

It seems to me that already than, in his youth, as Otari Davidovich spent months and years in laboratories, he became one of the guardians of Higher Tea Knowledge. All his life he strove to protect it from any encroachments as he understood that only the best quality of tea can preserve its centurieslong history. He achieved his goal: a new generation of tea keepers has already taken over!

We have decided to focus on the subject of GMO in this issue. The reason is that this subject, which has not yet been fully investigated, makes people scared, wary and, therefore, easy victims of speculation. Mass media in some countries publish increasing amounts of materials concerning GMO, which casually mention tea and coffee among the products which could be manufactured using genetic modification technologies. We resolved to rebuff such groundless accusations and consulted with many public, nonprofit,

and research organizations around the world. The verdict is clear: the world does not use genetic modification technologies to produce tea and coffee. Please refer to page 28–33 for detail.

Best regards, Ramaz Chanturiya

CONTENTS

1 EDITORIAL

2 CALENDAR OF EVENT PRESSING ISSUE

4 GMO: Dread or Welcome?

NEWS

6 2nd Moscow International Coffee Forum

14 Coffee and Tea Oriental Style

16 Orimi Trade Presented Over 350 Products at the Prodexpo Exhibition

16 Russian Technical Regulation News

16 Is a Stiff Fine the Best Certification?

16 Rusteacoffee Association Is Expanding

16 SDC Foods Is Eleventh Among 300Fastest Growing Companies in Russia

16 Finance-500 Rating Published

16 Web-space of KLD Coffee Importers

16 Ukraine Will Not Certify Food Products

16 Tea Consumption Grows by 15% in Kazakhstan

16 Azerbaijan Company to Invest in Tea Factory Construction in the Kuban

16 Is a Stiff Fine the Best Certification?

18 New Heights for China Tea: Hong-Kong View

20 Dedicated Man's Smile

20 Great Tea Road from China Through Mongolia Completed in Russia

22 To the 100th Birthday M.A. Bokuchava

REVIEW&STATISTICS

24 Statistic of tea turnover in Ukraine for April-June 2009

24 Statistic of tea turnover in Ukraine for July-September 2009

25 Statistic of tea turnover in Ukraine for October-December 2009

25 Study of TEA Retail Sales in Russian Cities with the Population over 10,000.

Data for August 2009–January 2010

26 Study of COFFEE Retail Sales in Russian Cities with the Population over 10,000.

Data for August 2009 – January 2010

28 Absurd Suspicions

30 No GMOs in the Tea Sector!

33 Mycotoxins in Tea and Tea Products

36 Crisis does not stop the breakthrough of coffee shop chains in Baltic states

ECONOMICS

38 Hot drinks in China

40 Hot drinks in Georgia

WHO IS WHO?

42 NEWS RELEASE: Glatfelter

44 ADVERTISER INDEX